4. CONTENTS
Gift Giving
Types of gift
Collective gift giving
Types of Gift Exchange
Different concepts about gifts
Principle of reciprocity
Spirits of the gifts
Gifts vs. commodities
The Person in the gift
5.
6. GIFT GIVING
Gift giving constitute one of the most
important mode of social exchange in
human societies.
The give and take in everyday life creates
maintain and strengthens various social
bond.
The world of gifts is complex as well as
diverse .
7. TYPES OF GIFT
Non ceremonial gifts:
The gifts which are given among friends and
family members without any occasion or
ceremony.
Ceremonial gifts:
The gifts which are given on ceremonies and
occasions such as wedding ,funerals and
Christmas.
Other examples of ceremonial gift giving are
Kula ring in trobriand society and potlach among
northwest native Americans.
8. COLLECTIVE GIFT GIVING
It is a type of gift giving not between
individuals instead among the groups.
The good example of collective gift giving is
the bride wealth i-e transfer of property or
money from groom’s family to the bride’s
family.
9. TYPES OF GIFT EXCHANGE
Horizontal Gift Exchange:
It occurs among social equals such as among
friends, co-workers, classmates and family
members etc.
Vertical Gift Exchange:
This exchange of gifts occur among people of
different social status such as boss and employee
it also include the exchange of gifts among
chiefs and his people.
10. DIFFERENT CONCEPTS ABOUT
GIFTS
Marcel Mauss laid out the theoretical
foundation for the anthropology of the gift
when he published “The Gift” in 1925.
He notes that gift exchange is characterized
by the obligation of giving, receiving and
returning whereas the most important
obligation is returning.
11. DIFFERENT CONCEPTS ABOUT
GIFTS
He gave three stage evolutionary scheme
of commodity exchange:
Total Prestation (barter exchange).
Moral person who represent gifts
(redistribution).
Commodity exchange between
independent individuals in market
societies.
12. PRINCIPLE OF RECIPROCITY
To demonstrate the universality of reciprocity,
Marshall Sahlins introduce three division of
exchange:
Generalized reciprocity: It includes no
expectation of return.
Balanced reciprocity: It includes some
expectation of return.
Negative reciprocity: It can take the form of
cheating.
13. PRINCIPLE OF RECIPROCITY
Malinowski give the principle of
reciprocity to explain the local system of
economic transactions i-e one gives because
of the expectation of return and one return
because of the threat that one’s partner may
stop giving.
14. SPIRITS OF THE GIFTS
Evil spirit of the gift in Indian societies:
The dan gifts which are offered by people in
the dominant caste to those in the lower castes
during various religious rituals to transfer
dangerous and bad elements such as illness,
death and misfortune from the donor to the
recipient and people of the lower caste have to
accept these gifts as it is the requirement of
their caste ideology to accept these poisonous
gifts without making a return gift.
15. SPIRITS OF THE GIFTS
Purification spirit of gifts:
The dan gifts are also accepted by Brahman
priests but for the benefit of entire
community, they can digest the evil
elements by their internal power.
16. GIFTS VS. COMMODITIES
Generalized reciprocity occur among close
kinship groups and Negative reciprocity occur
among non-kinship groups.
Gregory offer a formulation of gifts in clan-
based societies Vs commodity economy in
class-based societies
He purposed that gifts are exchanged in
personal relations and commodities are
exchange between impersonal relations those
like in markets.
17. THE PERSON IN THE GIFT
Every person has a self interest in gift giving.
For example:
In potlach among the northwest native
Americans, chiefs give more and more gifts to
show his power and prestige to his rival and
competing chiefs.
In Kula ring of trobriand societies, one give
because of the expectation of return and other
returns because of the threat that other people
will stop giving.
18. REFERENCES
A Hand Book of Economic Anthropology
Edited by James G. Carrier
Chapter 15
